Russian air carriers began the year with a decrease in traffic

Total traffic carried on Russian airlines decreased by 6.1% in January (Photo by Leonid Faerberg / Transport-Photo.com)

Total traffic carried on Russian airlines decreased to 5.54 million passengers in January of this year, down 6.1% from the same period in 2015. This decrease was extended to international routes, with a total experienced loss of over 2 million passengers, a decrease of 26.3% year-on-year. Similar losses were experienced by russian air carriers in other CIS countries as well. Domestic carriers experienced an increase in passenger flow, with 3.535 million passengers served, an increase of 11.1%.

The volume of air cargo and mail in January 2016 increased by 11.5% to 78.1 thousand metric tons. A vast majority, 82.3%, was carried on international routes, over which 64.2 thousand metric tons were carried. Inside Russia, the volume of cargo carried fell 5.2% to 13.9 thousand metric tons.

Meanwhile, the list of the largest russian air carriers in Russia has shifted since Transaero’s October 2015 exit from the market. As a result of this, Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary “Pobeda” has made its debut on the top-five list, carrying 331.0 thousand passengers in January (+418,9% compared to January 2014). The parent airline carried 2.005 million passengers (+10,7%), retaining its position as Russia’s largest carrier.

Transaero’s bankruptcy enabled Aeroflot to further increase its share on the Russian air transport market. The Aeroflot Group that also includes Rossiya, Donavia, OrenAir and Aurora, carried 2,965 million people in January, a 53.5% of all passengers that travelled by the domestic carriers.

Privately-owned S7 Airlines became the second one with 690.2 thousand passengers (+28,2%), followed by UTair (376.9 thousand passengers, –4,7%) and Ural Airlines (350.4 thousand passengers, +7,5%)

In 2015 the Russian airlines carried 92 million passengers, a decrease of 1.2%.

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